NL East

These are the five most exciting types of slides

The BBQ's Best 5 is exactly what it sounds like: Each week, we'll pick a category around the world of baseball and talk about the five best things within that group. Today, we're taking a look at the Best 5 types of slides.

On Monday night against the Royals, Rays shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria pulled off the slide of the 2018 season thus far, besting all-star backstop Salvador Perez in a sprawling showdown of nimbleness.

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Hechavarria's evasive maneuvering was pretty sweet, but it is still only one of many different types of awesome slide-avoiding tags.

Here are our five favorite types of slides from the world of baseball.

5. The Swim

Perfected in recent years by guys like Mike Trout and Javy Baez, the swim move slide is a classic technique that has only grown more popular in the age of replay. Few baseball moves look smoother and slicker than a well-executed swim slide. They are fantastic examples of the athleticism required to contort your body in such a way, and a fantastic example of what separates professional baseball players from the rest of us. Oh look, a swimming GOAT!

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4. The Full-Extension Slide Into Home

Unlike those who unabashedly adore bunts, we find the most enthralling baseball plays to be the ones where players throw themselves full bore into the play at hand, without a sniff of hesitation in sight. If you're like us, let me direct you to the full-extension headfirst slide into home.

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Let's bypass the fact Josh Donaldson decided to run home on this play (which is insane in itself), and just look at the slide. Most Major League tumbles into home don't resemble those carried out by youths on Slip 'N Slides, but kudos to Donaldson for pulling it off.

3. The Cheeky Pop-Up Slide

Josh Harrison is a national treasure, and we hope Nic Cage finds him too.

That the Pirates infielder is able to pull this interpretive dance move off without injury while also avoiding the tag is a testament to his out-of-this-world dexterity. We've seen similar versions of this slide from other nimble baseball men -- most notably this super smooth Anthony Rizzo slide -- but Harrison's performance is just that: A performance.

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2. The Headfirst Hand Dance

After Hechavarria pulled off his phenomenal move the other day, many made the obvious comparison to Ichiro's slide in the 2012 ALDS against the Orioles.

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The Hechavarria and Ichiro slides aren't really even slides at all -- they're more like run-around-the-plate-fall-down-and-reach-backs, which isn't really a catchy term.

1. The Superman Leap

You doubters may believe this isn't a slide, but this list isn't complete without the most athletic baseball play of recent memory. Chris Coghlan, enter stage left.

Yadier Molina's waddle of bewilderment is all of us.

This is our favorite type of slide. Tweet us @Cut4 and @CespedesBBQ to tell us which flavor of slide you like the best.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of the Cespedes Family BBQ. Despite a torn UCL in his right elbow, he still finds a way to tweet excessively during baseball games.